We found a human skeleton sprawled on the bank of the lake, with the path splitting to the north, and the southwest. I checked the skeleton and the snow around it and found two potions of Resist Fire.
"Well now; that's concerning," I said, holding them up for Serana to double-check.
"Resisting fire in a frozen valley?" she agreed after an expert sniff at the mouth of the bottle. "That suggests that something around here uses fire, a lot."
We ranged along the bank of the lake as far to the southwest as we could without walking onto the surface. There wasn't much; more rubble, broken masonry, and partially frozen plant life. One benefit was coming across several bushes chock full of ripe snowberries, and we took the time to strip them of their bounty. They had a spectacular flavor; mildly sweet with a hint of fruitiness that I couldn't quite compare to other fruits I had tasted. They were a pleasant change from our traveling supplies. Serana put some aside for alchemy, then joined me in popping a few into our mouths while storing others. Finding little else in the way of interest or shelter, we backtracked to the northern path.
We crossed a stone arch and followed a path up to the fourth wayshrine, which we gratefully activated. After dipping the ewer, we crossed back to continue following the path. Only a little further, and we came to a stop; in the near distance was a small, seemingly deserted Falmer settlement. From where I stood, I could see two Falmer tents, with a low-burning campfire between them.
Neither one of us was keen to tangle with Falmer this late in the day, with who knew how many individuals nearby. I certainly wasn't going to make use of their camp, especially not knowing who might come back from a hunting expedition while we rested.
Returning to the wayshrine, Serana and I returned to the Frost Giant's cave by silent mutual consent.
The next morning we popped through the wayshrine portals and back to the lake. Even through the cloth we wrapped around our faces to protect us from the early morning sunlight, my eyes watered. Clouds of our breath billowed into the icy air before us.
This was it; this was the best time to risk crossing the lake. The previous night had left a significant mark on the valley this morning, rimming everything with extra frost.
Serana eyed the lake warily before shrugging to me. Whatever she had seen the previous day wasn't moving about anywhere she could see.
She stepped out first, leading the way toward a small island just a short way out on the ice. To our left, the ice broke abruptly to reveal water rushing over the cliff's edge into an icy pool far below. I peered nervously over the edge, where solid stone made it possible to get so close. I shuddered and backed away. The fall was completely vertical and most definitely fatal.
Farther along the waterfall's edge, we could see a stone wall. As we got halfway, I realized it was a Word Wall. I had seen and even poked around Word Walls in Skyrim; a curve of solid stone where the ancient dragon language was written. There didn't seem to be anything special about them, unless one was a linguist.
Serana's confident steps began to slow, "Does this ice feel… thin to you?"
I made a face, "I dunno. I'd trust your Volkihar heritage on that judgment…." I glanced down, spotting white lines running through the ice beneath us. "But I'll admit that the cracks don't inspire much confidence."
Serana veered to the right a little, getting us onto more stable-looking ice and farther away from the waterfall's edge. Her cautious steps continued to show how carefully she was choosing her path.
There was a sudden, violent, and loud crash to our right and a smidge behind us; back where we had left the disturbing cracks.
Serana managed to burst out with a shocked, "Whoa!" as I spun around to face whatever was coming.
Water and chunks of ice erupted skyward through a hole punched through the lake's frozen surface. A massive reptilian head and neck surged upward. A lean body followed, wings opening with a snap; spraying water free of its body as a dragon surged out of the icy water. It was orange with blue dorsal markings and had wide, flat ridges that ran the length of its body and tail, beginning at the back of its skull. Its eyes were large and amphibian, while its entire body looked like a large, scaled rudder. This was a creature that spent the majority of its time in the water. A toothless, beak-like mouth differentiated it from the fanged, horned skulls I had seen in the Soul Cairn, but there was no denying that this was a dragon. It lifted free of its watery domain, sucked in a deep breath, and roared.
That's when there was a second crash farther out on the lake where the water would have been deeper. Another dragon exploded skyward, identical to the first, and shedding the icy water with the same casual disdain.
Damn it all to Oblivion! They're supposed to be extinct! But it shouldn't have surprised me… not really. Where else could the last remnants of an otherwise extinct species hide, except in places where few men tread, and none had come back alive?
Serana shouted, "Get back!" and I swore as we scrambled back to escape shards of ice that were returning to earth after their brief trip to the sky. Several chunks were larger than my whole torso, and their impacts spread spiderweb cracks across the surface of the ice. I could feel my footing rapidly grow more unstable as we scrambled for more solid footing. Several times, I felt the ice give, and I was saved from falling through by a desperate leap-and-scramble for a position farther away. My sensitivity to cold was bad enough without falling into an icy lake, so I had plenty of motivation to move, and move quickly.
The dragons' great wings beat like massive sails, and the double sound seemed to pulse in my chest. Both of the beasts turned to soar downriver before looping back toward us.
"Dragons!" I shouted frantically, "Drem Yol Lok! Tinvak! Tinvak please!"
The first dragon opened its mouth and bellowed, "Nid, joor. Nid tinvak; hi fen dir!"*
"I don't think he was agreeing to have a nice, happy talk!" Serana yelped.
The second dragon confirmed her assessment, as it opened its mouth and Shouted, "Yol Toor Shuul!" before exhaling a blast of fire toward me.
Yep. Those resist fire potions definitely had a purpose, I thought as I dove to the side, hit the ice, and rolled. The wash of heat missed me and puffed a small coating of snow to instant steam. But the last thing I need is to chill my body down while on the unstable surface of a frozen lake. Not that I have the time to stop and drink one.
I couldn't fight the two dragons… not with the limited dragonbone arrows I had. But the sounds of their wings triggered a memory.
Praying this would work, I got to my feet, took a deep breath, and yelled, "Durnehviir! Hear my Voice and come forth from the Soul Cairn. I summon you in my time of need."
I had never cast the big spells; I didn't have the magic power trained up. This magic, however, didn't care about how much mana I had in me. I felt a force gather in my lungs, surge up through my throat, and burst out from between my teeth in a pulse that sounded like an otherworldly humming noise.
The force left me feeling empty as it left my body. I gasped two deep gulps of air as a wall of purple fire exploded into sight before me on the lake's surface. The massive form of the rotten, undead dragon coalesced before me within seconds.
The two dragons made barking noises that sounded surprised and faltered briefly as Durnehviir spread his tattered wings in the sunlight. They altered course in their fly-by, skirting the newly appeared one of their kin warily. I figured we didn't have much time before they lost their caution and we had a real, aerial, dragon fight on our hands.
The undead dragon, however, inhaled deeply and his body seemed to… fill out a bit. He was no less rotten, and the smell of decay certainly didn't diminish, but I could almost feel the strength pouring into him as he breathed the fresh, living air outside of the Soul Cairn.
"Ah! The free air of Vus at long last!" he all but purred.
"I'm sorry Durnehviir, that my first call has you in a fight of two against one," I apologized, a little dismayed by how... wheezy my voice sounded.
"Niid Qahnaarin. Do not apologize, for battle is the way of dragons. And remember," the great head tuned briefly back toward me. I would have sworn was wicked glee in his undead, glowing eyes, "none have bested me until you. Take cover, little joor, for when dragons battle, there is no place for the small and... squishy on the battlefield."
I needed no more encouragement than that and bolted, as well as someone could bolt across the slick ice of the lake, toward the island. The word wall was merely a spot to pause, as there was no real shelter for us anywhere close. Our only choice was to go forward. One of the dragons' exit holes was behind us and by the fractured ice that we had barely escaped, walking back across that mess simply wasn't possible.
Serana took her cue from me and sprinted with more assurance as the undead dragon leaped into the air to meet his two opponents. They were now coming back for another glimpse of the new dragon. Durnehviir bellowed a wordless call of challenge and then thundered, "Voslaarum! Naaslaarum! Mu grind dovah ahst fin frod!"**
In answer, one of them silently folded its wings and dove, using its armor-plated head to punch through the ice and vanish beneath the surface of the lake. The other swiftly followed suit; both unleashing a creaking, cracking noise across the surface of the lake. The two then exploded back through the surface to rise into the air near where the undead dragon awaited them. More white lines chased each other and intersected across the lake's surface. A stream of Dragonfire was unleashed at Durnehviir, who answered with a bellow that was more pleasure than pain.
"Diil Qoth Zaam!" Purple orbs were expelled from his jaws and coalesced into undead servants from the Cairn, which soon began peppering the aerial combatants with arrows.
The dragon that had blasted Durnehviir with flame shrieked with shock as the arrows struck home and caused pain. The second closed in on the undead dragon from behind. With maneuverability far beyond what I imagined such a large undead creature could have, Durnehviir spun in the air and met his would-be ambusher with lashing hind claws.
The blows struck the living dragon with a vicious, painful strike to the head. It worked similarly to a Redguard youth intercepting a thrown ball and punching it straight down into the sands with their fists. The crash of yet another impact of a dragon diving through the ice -less voluntarily this time- woke me to a sharp realization. The frozen surface of the lake was going to wind up a little too unstable to walk on soon. A sandstorm was on the horizon, as my elders used to say, and I didn't want to be trapped on this tiny island. We would be surrounded by giant holes in an icy lake, a million cracks, and no safe route to dry land.
With unstable ice back the way we had come, we had to head for the opposite side. I gestured for Serana to follow me as we cautiously fled. As much as I wanted to watch our ally prove his fighting prowess, as one warrior admired the form of another, the aerial battle sounded like it was intensifying. An arch and more broken snow elf architecture marked what I could only hope was a path we could take.
We skirted the second dragon's first escape from the lake bottom, aiming for our only chance for distance. The snarls, bellows, and booming words of power raged closer, then farther away, then closer again.
A voice that was not Durnehviir's, thundered, "GAAN LAH HAAS!" and a pulse of magic energy hit my back like the slap of a towel.
I staggered, then dropped to all fours, feeling a wave of panic wash through me as I felt my stamina plummet as badly as it had in the Soul Cairn. I lurched back to my feet through pure force of will and managed to stagger three steps farther before I nearly lost my footing again. Cursed Darvak. This is not the time for this! But time or not, my legs trembled and sweat broke out on my brow. The dragon's spell wasn't something I could just walk off with a curse on my tongue and sheer Redguard stubbornness in my spine.
I heard Serana shout, "Lasirah!" a split second before something massive crashed down through the ice behind me. I lurched forward with a feeble shove of my feet, but the spiderweb cracks shot past me faster than I could blink, and then I plunged into the lake.
* Nid, joor. Nid tinvak; hi fen dir! / "No, mortal. No conversation; you will die!"
** Mu grind dovah ahst fin frod! / We meet on the field of battle!
